do you mean?" asked the priest, dryly.

"A young girl, of course. She must live about here somewhere. I saw her
come up this street, but when I turned the corner she had mysteriously
disappeared. I tell you, Mikail, she is a beauty. I shall not rest until
I find her!"

"You are seeking perdition," exclaimed the priest, wrathfully. "A pretty
face is Satan's trap to lure a weak soul into his toils."

"Convent talk!" answered Loris, disdainfully. "Why do I stand here and
speak to a priest about a woman? When you take your vows of celibacy you
pretend to dislike anything that wears petticoats. But I doubt whether
even you could resist the temptation of a handsome face and voluptuous
form."

Mikail's eyes flashed. He was about to reply to Loris' sneer, but, by a
severe effort, he checked his rising anger, and without another word
turned on his heel and walked away.

"Ill-natured cur!" muttered Loris. "They are all alike--hypocritical
fools! With all their pretended virtue, I would not like to expose the
best of them to even a moderate temptation."

Mikail walked through a maze of lanes until he came to the street which
had formed one of the boundaries of the "Jews' town." He now observed,
for the first time, groups of Jewish men, women and children, dressed in
their holiday attire, pass him and enter a large building not far away.

"It is their Sabbath, and they are going to their barbarous worship,"
thought the priest, as he crossed himself.

He went further into the quarter, carefully avoiding the groups that he
encountered, and finally entered the dwelling of a Christian woman, who
sublet rooms to Jewish tenants. The information which awaited him here
must have been important, for it was quite a while before he emerged
into the street and retraced his steps towards the city. His path led
directly past Mendel's synagogue. Through the window he heard the chant
of the _hazan_, and he paused, reflectively.

"After all," he murmured, "what harm can it do if I go in. I am in
search of facts and where shall I be better able to find them than in
the Jews' stronghold, their synagogue?"

Crossing himself devoutly, he opened the door and entered.

The _shamas_ (sexton), surprised to see a _gallach_ (priest) in the
synagogue, stood for some moments in doubt, but finally shuffled up to
the stranger and showed him a seat in the last row of benches.

Mikail sat down passively. For a moment he seemed dazed and stupefied.
Pe